Jack the Cowboy

We visited the birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset Iowa. Jack loved the hat and wanted to be a cowboy.

Rain

Rain, rain, go away. Bad thunderstorms and lightning in Iowa. Heavy winds. Not a good combo for first day driving.

WE'RE OFF!!!!!

Well we're off.  We wanted to be on the road by 7:00 am and it was 7:02 when we rolled out of the driveway from Marilyn's house.  First stop was to fill up with gas and grab some ice.  We went to the local gas station in Germantown, IL.  John pulls in for gas and gets out and realizes the gas tank is on the other side.  First lesson learned and hopefully a mistake not to be made again.  Sam and I went in for soda, coffee and ice.  John fills up and we leave.  About 30 minutes later we get a phone call from John's mom.  The sheriff just left her house because the gas station called them saying we had gased up and left without paying.  Apparently the pump had asked him to enter the zip code and he inadvertently bypassed that and continued to pump gas.  In PA, the pumps don't work unless the card is processed for payment.  I guess they're a little more trusting in IL (at least down south).  Anyway, we gassed up and left not giving it a second thought.  Then the phone call came.  Oh well, the first of many mishaps I'm sure.

Look where we're going!

EXCITED TO LEAVE!

We've been on the road for awhile now and the kids seem to be settling in just fine.

 We've been on the road for awhile now and the kids seem to be settling in just fine.

Picking Up the RV

Well the big day finally came to pick up the RV.  Sam, John and I met the company at the mall parking lot to pick up the RV.  My first thought was "Oh my, it's big".  John did very well navigating to his mom's house to begin the full day of packing.  The kids love it as you can see by the pictures.

Travel woes already

Well, spent over an hour in construction traffic in Ohio.

Driving to Illinois

We're 3 hours into the trip and the kids are still good. Jack's enjoying donuts and Spiderman on TV, Grace is working on latch hook (remember back to the 70's and 80's) and Katie is napping. Weather is good. Hit some construction so traffic is a little heavy.

Leaving Macungie

Well we wanted to be on the road by 6:00 am. We're already an hour late leaving and we forgot something do we're headed back home. Thankfully we're only down the road at Wawa. As you can see by the picture, Sam is missing. He's staying until next Wed so he can attend football. He will flying out alone and we'll pick him up in St. Louis. At least we're not totally packed in yet. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends who are helping and who have offered to help. This wouldn't be possible without you. More to come later.

Supplies

Just the beginning of what we'll bring on our trip. We still have to borrow a ton of stuff from family as well as making a huge trip to Target and Sam's Club.